Joe.My.God. LGBT News
The New York Times reports:
Donald J. Trump’s family business has an agreement to sell its marquee Washington hotel, reaching a deal to fetch at least $375 million for a property that prompted ethical scrutiny and struggled to make money even as it drew steady crowds of lobbyists, lawmakers and Trump loyalists.
The deal so far is what is known as a purchase and sale agreement, meaning a final sale of the Trump International Hotel has not taken place and may not happen until early next year, according to three people with knowledge of the matter.
The sale of the lease of the hotel, which operates out of a landmark federal building on Pennsylvania Avenue, comes after years of financial losses at the property, which opened in 2016, shortly before Mr. Trump was elected president.
The Washington Post reports:
At the time, the project symbolized the ambitions of Trump’s small luxury hotel chain. The Trump Organization scoffed at rivals who said it paid too much and would never make money. “I mean, we are paying too much for the Old Post Office,” Trump told The Post in 2012. “But we will make that so amazing that at some point in the future it’ll be very nice.” After Trump won the presidency, however, the property almost immediately became a lightning rod for controversy and litigation.
Foreign leaders, Republican groups and companies seeking government approvals spent millions there, and ethics experts and Democrats repeatedly sued the company, alleging it was violating the Constitution’s foreign emoluments clause, which bars the president from accepting gifts or payments from foreign leaders. None of the cases produced a ruling against Trump or his company.
Bloomberg News reports:
The buyer plans to remove the Trump name and reached a deal with Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. to convert the property to a Waldorf Astoria managed by Hilton. The Wall Street Journal reported the agreement earlier Sunday.
Trump’s company has been engaged in off-and-on efforts to sell the hotel since 2019, when it floated an asking price of more than $500 million, Bloomberg News previously reported.
According to documents released by the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, the hotel received about $3.75 million in payments from foreign governments, but still lost more than $70 million during Trump’s time in the White House. The Trump Organization disputed the report.
WSJ scoop: Donald Trump’s family has reached an agreement to sell the rights to its Washington, D.C., hotel for $375 million. New owner will take down TRUMP name and rebrand the luxury property as Waldorf Astoria https://t.co/N6xEDeUUCP via @WSJ
— Craig Karmin (@CraigKarmin) November 14, 2021